Today I share another profound quote from Father Donald Haggerty. In a world fractured by identity politics and rage this is a reminder of a strategy that can truly transform our lives and those of the people we care about.

One of the truly special things about your vocation as a Catholic educator is the way that your focus is directed toward the needs of others. Today's message takes us deeper into that reality.

Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.

Once again, welcome aboard to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.

Great to have the pleasure of your company wherever you're listening in the world.

Thanks for tuning in for just a few moments for a little

bit of daily encouragement and inspiration for Catholic teachers.

It's such a crucial job that you're doing job.

Did I say job?

I mean, vocation.

Uh, calling if you've heard me speak live in how often I talk about that,

that this is a partnership God's called you into being an agent of what he's

trying to accomplish in the world.

So few of us get to operate at the highest levels of global power and politics, and

we assume that that's more significant.

But as I often say, God's economy is very, very different.

What we do on the smallest level, what we do on the smallest scale, the

conversations you're going to have in the next 24 hours as a Catholic educator

are as significant in God's eyes as anything that world leaders are doing.

You got to remember that, that, uh, He sees things very differently to us and

these small things that you do every single day are precious in his sight

and have ramifications and implications far beyond what you might think.

So never minimize the crucial importance of what you're doing every single day.

Now today's quote comes again from father Donald Haggerty.

If you've been listening to recent episodes, You know, I've been starting

to read his, uh, extraordinary works on contemplative prayer.

And, uh, this one's really interesting.

I'm going to read it to you.

And then now when you first hear it, you'll be like, what?

And then we'll just unpack it really quickly.

He says this, there are no mirrors in heaven.

Nor for that matter in the possession of those who love

God with intensity in this life.

One more time.

There are no mirrors in heaven, nor for that matter in the prison of those who

love God with intensity in this life.

Took me a couple of seconds to figure this out when I first saw

it, but what he's getting at, why would there be no mirrors in heaven?

Because in heaven.

This beautiful idea of the beatific vision is that we are all looking towards God.

We are seeing God as he really is.

And that is more than we can ask hope or imagine it's the most,

uh, it's what we're made for.

So, what it means is that in heaven, you don't need mirrors.

Why?

Because nobody wants to look at themselves.

Nobody's remotely interested in looking at themselves.

What they're interested in is, uh, being with the science in heaven,

staring at being in the presence of contemplating, enjoying, experiencing

in eternal ecstatic rapture, the beatific vision, the very face and

presence of God himself in himself.

So what it means is that in this life, We probably don't need mirrors.

What does it mean?

Think for a second about Instagram culture.

Think for a second about the world we inhabit that is just utterly

focused on the promotion of the self, the presentation of the self,

the, uh, the projection of the self.

We can come up with more words, but you get the point.

We live in a culture.

That's.

Uh, increasingly narcissistic, you look at the work of professor John twing, who

did the seminal rich research on, um, narcissism, particularly for young people.

The, the narcissism indicator scores for young people have jumped

dramatically in recent generations.

So, what this means is that the Christian life is a life

of increasing forgetfulness.

It's a life of increasingly thinking about and looking less at ourselves.

Now that doesn't mean any kind of, you know, self rejection or

that we don't feel that we matter.

It's not that it's that we begin to gradually forget ourselves.

St.

John of the cross has been a big part of my spiritual formation

over the last three decades.

And.

He is beautiful.

You know, he's famous spiritual poetry.

He says, you know, that, um, he went out of himself, left

himself forgotten and abandoned.

So often as spiritual life deepens his prayer deepens.

We get this kind of, so forgetfulness where we become far more interested

in others and in God, than we do in ourselves mentioned a culture like that.

I mentioned a culture.

I mean, look at our culture at the moment is just so full of rage and anger

and rights and demands and, and, you know, fracturing all over the place.

I ran identity because of this, you know, this profound obsession that we

seem to have culture at the moment with all forms of different, uh, identity.

Whereas the Christian vision is a gradual, so forgetfulness and a focusing upon

the other on, on the person in front of us on, on God, in contemplation.

So let's tie this up for Catholic educators.

We're called to this gradual self forgetfulness.

We don't need mirrors.

We don't need to be self obsessed.

We need to be focused upon.

And I'm sure so many of you do this incredibly well focused upon the needs

of young people, their families on a.

On focusing upon God.

And if we do that for long enough, By the grace of God, he transforms

us and we become fully who he is.

I mean, look at Christ on the cross.

I mean, how do I, how do I prove these theories?

Look at Christ, you know, this, this self abandonment, this

complete self giving for others.

And we're caught into that.

So one more time, there are no mirrors in heaven, nor for that matter in

the possession of those who love God with intensity in this life.

One more time clarification.

It doesn't mean that we don't look after ourselves.

It doesn't mean that we don't practice self care and look after

our wellbeing, because if we do that, we can actually love each other.

Love others more effectively.

But let's be revolutionary.

Huh?

Let's be the kind of people that Christians have always been

at crucial moments in history.

Let's be, counter-cultural, let's be people that are not self obsessed.

Let's be people who are deeply focused upon the needs of others

and upon finding and seeking God or seeking and finding God.

So I know you're already doing this.

You wouldn't be in this vocation of this.

Wasn't already part of your life.

So God bless your friends.

I hope that's a little bit of encouragement for you.

Thank you for what you're doing every single day.

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My name is Jonathan Doyle.

It's been a joy to do this and I'll have another message for you tomorrow.